Welcome to The Hoiberg Family Blog; the home of Hoiberg Family happenings & Vaccine Awareness
Caitlyn's
Story
Back in January of 2005 Sarah Hoiberg
took a perfectly healthy baby girl of 18 months into the
pediatrician for a scheduled round of vaccinations. Little did
the Hoiberg’s know that their lives were going to be changed
forever within the next 24 hours.
That night was a rather unusual night,
Caitlyn Hoiberg was fussier than normal, but she had just had a
round of vaccinations. The next morning is when our world would
come to a halt…
Caitlyn was a late sleeper and would
usually not wake up until 10:00am. Sarah was home with Caitlyn
and suddenly heard a voice tell her, “Go check on
Caitlyn”. Sarah went to Caitlyn’s room and found her
lying in a pool of dampness on her bed completely unresponsive.
Sarah picked up Caitlyn and her head fell to one side.
Caitlyn’s body was stiff on one side and loose on the other.
Immediately Sarah called 911, the
neighbor down the street, being a Fire Fighter, rushed to our
house after hearing the call go across the dispatch. Our
neighbors were able to aid Sarah while Jacksonville Fire &
Rescue Department was in route. JFRD arrived and immediately
tended to Caitlyn trying to get, what we had just found out were
seizures, under control. All this time Sarah kept telling the
paramedics, “She just had her shots yesterday”. At this
point Chris Hoiberg was leaving the dentist and on his way to
meet Sarah at the ER.
Once at the ER, Caitlyn was immediately
taken in and the ER staff began attempting to stop the seizures.
Eventually she had enough drugs onboard that the seizures
stopped, but by this point, her brain was so tired that all she
was doing was laying there in an unconscious state. We eventually
made it up to a room in the PICU (Pediatrics Intensive Care
Unit). Caitlyn did not wake for several days after being admitted
into the Hospital. During this time, Chris & Sarah kept
telling the doctors, “She just had her shots
yesterday”, but it was falling on deaf ears.
The doctor’s were running tests all
week long and were coming up empty handed, Infectious Disease was
called in and yet no test they performed was yielding any
answers. They tested for things like Lime Disease & Cat
Scratch Fever. During this time, Chris & Sarah were
researching the side effects of the shots Caitlyn had received
the day before, and of the shots one stood out in particular, the
Pertussis Antigen in the DTaP (Diphtheria, Tetanus, and acellular
Pertussis) vaccine. Pertusis carries a “Moderate Problems
(uncommon)” side effect of Seizures & “Severe
Problems (Very Rare)” (according to the CDC) side effect
of permanent Brain Damage. It was at this point Chris & Sarah
knew for certain what the root cause of what had happened to
Caitlyn. All during these tests, Chris & Sarah kept insisting
it was the vaccine that caused this reaction. All they kept
hearing was that “Vaccines are safe do not do
that…”
It wasn’t until all those tests were
run that Chris & Sarah received the devastating news from
Caitlyn’s neurologist that Caitlyn did in fact have a Brain
Injury, an “Acute Encephalopathy” of the right front
temporal lobe of her brain. This was the devastating news that
confirmed what Chris & Sarah had thought all along.
What an “Acute Encephalopathy of
the right front temporal lobe of her brain” meant for
Caitlyn was life changing. As humans, we are cross wired, the
right side of our brain controls the left side of our body as the
left side of our brain controls the right side. Speech and fine
motor skills are located in the front of the brain. Most people
have their speech and fine motor skills in the left side as most
people are right handed. But studies have shown that people
predominantly left handed can have their speech and fine motor
skills in the right side of the brain. Caitlyn was a lefty, the
only one in our immediate family (Chris comes from parents that
were both left handed). Since the injury was in the right front
temporal lobe, Caitlyn had lost all her speech, fine motor
skills, and control & movement of her left side extremities.
For weeks Caitlyn laid in the hospital,
in and out of the PICU. Family by her side 24/7, there was not a
single moment that either a family member or close friend of the
family was not in the room with her. The Hoiberg’s were
sleeping in the PICU with Caitlyn every night and family would
relieve them during the day for short breaks to clear their head
and get fresh air. Eventually Caitlyn made it out of the PICU and
into a room. At this point the Hoiberg’s were able to setup
a schedule. Sarah would be there during the day, Chris would come
by after work and spend the night and wake up the next morning
and go to work to have Sarah come back and stay during the day.
Family & friends would take care of Laura, Caitlyn’s big
sister, and get her to and from school and provide care for her
in the evenings. One night a week, family would spend the night
to allow for Chris, Sarah, & Laura to have one evening at
home together during the week. During their time in the PICU,
Caitlyn had more seizures and the Hoiberg’s almost lost
Caitlyn on several occasions.
A day or so before Caitlyn was to go
home; her neurologist came by to check on Caitlyn and told the
Hoiberg’s they needed to file an Adverse Reaction Report
with the VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) website which is a cooperative
program for vaccine safety of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Chris & Sarah later found out that their Pediatrician had sent
the form in as well.
Caitlyn went home close to a month after
being admitted to the ER on Chris’ Birthday. When the
Hoiberg’s brought Caitlyn home, she could not sit up nor
hold her own head up. Caitlyn’s muscle tone had deteriorated
from being in the hospital for close to a month without the
ability to move her muscles. All Caitlyn could do for several
months after was sit in a feeding chair and moan.
Things did eventually start to get
improve after Sarah immediately started Caitlyn into intense PT
(Physical Therapy), OT (Occupational Therapy), & ST (Speech
Therapy). Sarah did not waste any time getting Caitlyn into these
Therapies. What the Hoiberg’s learned is that, even with the
damage the shot caused, was not all lost, children’s
brain’s are still developing at an early age and their brain
is still “like plastic”, it is still molding and there
is still the possibility of remapping what was lost, but this
requires intense therapy.
Caitlyn reached a milestone when she
started walking again (with the aid of a brace). This was
something the doctors told the Hoiberg’s not to expect
Caitlyn to be able to do again.
To this day, Caitlyn has very limited use
of her left arm; she does not talk, and has trouble understanding
right & wrong. Caitlyn has been hospitalized several times
since her initial visit for seizures.
Caitlyn is almost always smiling; she is capable of using sign language for very limited requests and can now run. She is however attending ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis) schooling 5 days a week with one on one teaching. She is still receiving PT, OT, & ST is also doing Hippotherapy. To this day, the doctors cannot speak to what lies ahead for Caitlyn, the Hoiberg’s are in uncharted territory and doing the best to get Caitlyn what she needs for what they believe will be a full recovery.
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